We found a shady spot outside of the Torggler Fine Arts Museum, which is attached to Ferguson Center, for a group shot on Tuesday. It was only 11:45, but it was very warm and muggy already!
Tuesday, August 27
The first thing we attended to this morning was our bird feeders. We've been frustrated at the squirrels recently, who climb the poles, straddle the "squirrel buster" feeders vertically, and devour the bird seed. Last week we did research on ways to deter them, and decided to try the Slinky method. We hung Slinky toys so that the feeder pole was inside the Slinky. If the squirrels try to climb the pole, the Slinky will work like an elevator to give them a ride back down to the ground! Later this afternoon, we saw a squirrel near one of the poles, but he didn't even try to climb. Instead, he nibbled on what the birds dropped. Our fingers are crossed!
UPDATE on SLINKY METHOD: By Friday afternoon, we still had bird food in the feeders! We haven't caught any squirrels trying to climb the poles since we attached the Slinkys, so they must be working. Here is a photo of 3 squirrels on Friday morning!
After visiting the Torggler's website to get a preview of the Anna Hyatt Huntington exhibition (click pic), we headed to CNU's beautiful campus for our visit with our friend and guide, Education Manager, Barbara Stephenson.
When we first arrived, it was warming up, but we opted to walk from the parking lot instead of being dropped off at the door!
As before, we were in awe of the entrance to the Torggler and the beautiful glass dome with the "Shylights" floating up and down from the ceiling. Barbara said the windows were recently washed, and what a job that must have been!
Barbara was ready for us, and we listened attentively to her introduction about the exhibit. This picture at the entrance is one of the lions, from Lions Bridge fame. We knew Anna Hyatt Huntington had sculpted four of them out of limestone and that they are an iconic site on Museum Drive. We have visited them before and hoped to see them today, but Barbara informed us that they are covered for protection while the Lions Bridge dam is being repaired. Anna's husband, Archer Huntington, was one of the founders of the Mariner's Museum, and his father was the founder of Newport News Shipyard.
Barbara explained that Anna grew up with a love for animals. Her mother and her sister were artists, and her father was a zoologist, so she "naturally" was drawn to animals. She was a keen observer of them and in her sculpting career, always strived to show them anatomically correct, and in motion. She was particularly fond of horses, and scuplted many of them. Alexis is fond of horses too, and enjoyed finding many of Anna's horse sculptures in the exhibit.
Michelle, Devin, and Sam noticed the jaguar painting on the wall, and this sculpture nearby of a jaguar having a meal! Barbara told us that this particular jaguar in the painting was one at a zoo that was very tolerant of being observed and sculpted by Anna, but he wasn't so "friendly" to other zoo visitors.
Many of Anna's sculptures were cast in bronze or aluminum, some large and some small. The casting process enabled many copies of a sculpture to be made and they could proportionately scale them larger or smaller in size. These chimpanzees are cast in aluminum and not too big to set on a coffee table.
Here are two deer playing. It's a sculpture cast in aluminum. Around 100 years ago when Anna's sculptures were being shown, museums didn't have good lighting like now. Anna found that aluminum sculptures showed a bit better indoors than did bronze ones. However, she preferred for sculptures to be shown outdoors in natural light.
We were thrilled with the number of animal sculptures we saw today! It really was a menagerie!
Anna and her husband Archer founded Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina. It's a sculpture garden and wildlife preserve that is still open today. The area of the Torggler exhibit that represents Brookgreen Gardens is very pretty!
There are other exhibits in smaller areas that are interesting, too. In the "Peruvian Tapestry" exhibit, photos taken by CNU students during a study in Peru are on display, and we enjoyed seeing their ideas of the biodiversity in that country.
This exhibit is called "Cartoon Brain" and features contemporary artists' takes on animation.
Thanks so much, Barbara, for another fantastic visit. We very much appreciate your insight and stories! We look forward to visiting you again in the future!!
Wednesday, August 28
It was a GCOC volunteer morning, so the crew that remained at the center worked on thank you cards for Laura's family, who treated us to a tasty chicken and ice cream sundae party last week.
This crew also created a large thank you card for Randy and Sally who are treating us to ham sliders and cake for lunch tomorrow! We miss our friend Nancy very much, but keeping in touch with Randy and Sally helps us feel connected to her.
We composed a group thank you letter and inserted colorful pictures to "snaz" it up!
We also added colorful pictures and stickers. We plan to give it to Randy and Sally when they deliver our lunch tomorrow!
Nancy, who now lives in Kentucky, recently cleaned out her closet and asked Randy and Sally to bring some of her gently used shirts to the AoA, in case some of her friends (even some she doesn't know!) would like them. Apparently, she is a fashionista who has to purge every now and then! Several of our gals found pretty, colorful tops they liked. Patrick found a unisex Atlanta Braves t-shirt which thrilled him, and Erik very thoughtfully picked a pretty lavender colored top for his mom! 💜 Thank you, Nancy, Randy, and Sally, for thinking about others!
Over at GCOC, our other crew was busy packing the nonperishable food that had been delivered by the USDA truck. Turns out, it was a huge delivery, and we felt fortunate to have both Cameron and Allison with us to help today!
We were thrilled to see that Peggy and Joel were back from their recent travels. We LOVE working at GCOC with these dedicated volunteers, as well as Ally and the entire staff! It's another wonderful partnership that contributes to our skill development and confidence growth!
Here's Joel smiling brightly with another GCOC volunteer, whose name we missed, and that's our volunteer Allison behind him. Fun-loving Peggy is waving in the background! Hey, Girl!
Our sweet friend, and top-notch baker, Ursula, found out that Laura just had a birthday. She baked a very delicious chocolate mousse cake that everyone enjoyed after singing "Happy Birthday" to Laura! How very thoughtful of you, Ursula! What a joyful surprise for Laura (and all of us)! Thank you for your kindness!
This is a picture of one of the Anna Hyatt Huntington sculptures we saw yesterday at the Torggler Fine Arts Center. It's a bronze sculpture of a zebra and her foal. It was the inspiration for a lesson about zebras today!
Some facts we learned from a video were that no two zebras have the same stripe pattern, there are three species of zebras and they are only found (in the wild) in Africa, and unfortunately, they are an endangered species. 🦓🦓🦓
We made a fun zebra craft while Allison was still working with us! First, we ate a couple of Hershey Hugs (Kisses) so we could use the striped wrapper. We then turned part of a paper plate, a zebra head cut-out, and yarn (for a tail) into a zebra, and added candy wrapper strips for the zebra's stripes!
After Allison put our zebras on the windows, Annmarie came over in one of Nancy's donated shirts, to join the herd! She's the cutest zebra ever!!
In other news today...
The JRES Cafeteria and "Lunch Lady Liz" are back in service! Devin and Drew, and the zebras, would agree that the spaghetti is pretty tasty!
We celebrated National Lemon Juice Day! We learned facts such as lemon juice can be sprinkled on freshly cut fruits or veggies to keep them from turning brown, California and Arizona produce the most lemons in the United States, and lemons last longer if stored in the refrigerator.
Since we were going to make freshly squeezed lemonade, we did an experiment to determine which "hack" would be best for getting the most juice out of lemons. We tried the "poke a hole" method which involved using a skewer to poke a hole in one end of the lemon and then squeezing hard as shown by Devin and Bryan. Next we tried the microwave method, as Michelle demonstrates, which was to heat the lemon for about 20 seconds and then squeeze by hand. Abraham and Erik tried "roll and squeeze" which required them to roll the lemons with pressure, and then squeeze by hand. Emma and Laura demonstrated the good ole juicer method, which, in the end, we decided was the easiest and most efficient, although every method worked!
Go, Emma, Go!
Our recipe called for a simple syrup, which we made by melting sugar in boiling water. Lexi and Liz added the lemon juice to the simple syrup and then we topped it off with cold water.
Once we threw some lemon slices on for a garnish, we were in business! We turned lemons into lemonade! (We also had a lesson on that figure of speech...it's a tricky one to understand!)
The Lemonade Dance helped rev up our thinking, so for brain work we made words using the letters in LEMONADE! We were striving for more 4 letter words than 3 letter ones today.
Doesn't our lunch look delicious?! We enjoyed it very much, and with the freshly squeezed lemonade, it was perfect for a scorcher of a day!
We spent the rest of the afternoon having Choice Time, listening to our read-aloud, and making an appreciation card (which was filled with more cards) for our friends at Bowlero. Tuesday is our next bowling day, and it happens to also be National Bowling League Day! What a great time to thank Bowlero for all they do to make our bowling trips so much fun.
Here's a glimpse at end-of-the day shenanigans, after tables and chairs have been put away and everyone is awaiting their rides. Lisa, Carol, and Nan are thankful they don't start the day this way! LOL!
Friday, August 30
When we found ourselves with a Friday "off" from our vocational jobs, we knew just how we wanted to spend our time: Making blueberry grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch! They are kind of time consuming, so having more "hands on deck" to help would make it easier. 🫐🫐
First, we decided to flip our schedule and take our trip to NN Park for a walk this morning since the weather forecast indicated we might have rain after lunch. We went on a "group photo" scavenger hunt, and found lots of great opportunities to show our smiling faces!
We found sculpture to pose with, and one tree that has already turned yellow for fall!
We wandered for quite a while, practicing for the upcoming 5k, and eventually, we came across a playground!
There were no young children playing, so we enjoyed a few minutes of being kids again!
But no! There was one more. We got to be rebels for this one! 😜 The rain held off and we had a fun hour in the park! (In fact, it never rained at all today!)
Back at the center, we prepared our lunch. Blueberry grilled cheese sandwiches also contain apple slices and honey. It's a recipe we tried 8 years ago after our very first field trip, which was to pick blueberries! We've made them at least once or twice a year since, and hope to continue enjoying them for a long time to come! They do require a bit of work to construct, and some finesse in flipping them without losing the blueberries, and before they burn! It's all worth it though!
Lexi and Liz buttered the bread.
After cheese had been placed on the bread, Emma carefully placed blueberries and then another slice of cheese. Next, Devin carefully placed thin slices of apple.
The last step before topping with the second slice of bread and grilling, is to drizzle honey on top of the apple slices, which Emma did very carefully.
While sandwiches were being made, Bryan, Kate, and Laura were washing and slicing veggies.
We added corn chips to round out our plate, and ta-da, lunch was ready! Doesn't that blueberry grilled cheese sandwich just seem to be smiling at you?! It's sooo good!
We ended the day with a boys vs. girls game of corn hole. As always, we enjoyed cheering for each other, no matter which team we were on!
Emma sank a beanbag in the hole for the first time today, and she was giddy with excitement, as you can tell from her blurry photo!
The boys won this time, but when the game ended, we all agreed it was fun for all, and a great way to close the week!
We sent August out with another very warm, but fun week! We're looking forward to what September brings, including "cooler" temperatures next week! Here's our schedule:
Tuesday: Time for bowling, and today is National Bowling League Day! We're stoked for today's fun because it also includes pizza for lunch at Bowlero, sponsored by Kate's family! Thanks so much, Thompsons! After bowling we'll stop by Bicentennial Park (behind the Art Museums) for a walk since the weather forecast looks good! Please wear Arc shirts for Bowling League Day photo ops!
Wednesday: We are not going to GCOC today because there is no scheduled food truck delivery. (We are on call if another task comes up at GCOC, but Arc shirts are optional.) We'll use the new laptops to update our calendar for September! It's also National Wildlife Day, so that will give us a chance to learn about animals and do some brain work. Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is available for Popcorn Chicken Bowl or Hot Dog.
Thursday: Today is the first day of Carol's vacation, so we'll stay low-key with a Movie Day. It happens to be Barbie Doll Day. Hmm, we discussed this with the gang, and agreed we'd all be mostly ok to check out the Barbie movie, with puzzle, game, and coloring options, too. (P.S. Wearing pink is optional!) We recently received a donation of flavored popcorn so we will enjoy that during the movie. We'll also celebrate Be Late for Something Day with a lesson on telling time! Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is available for Domino's pizza, deli sub, or chef salad.
Friday: Tracy is filling in for Carol today - thank you, Tracy - and she will take a group to PSP for a work morning. The AFCC group will work on preparing library discard books and cleaning out our closets. They will also prepare Hamburger Stew with crackers and Jell-O salad for lunch. We'll celebrate Read a Book Day by continuing our read-aloud, Skink, No Surrender and we'll end the week with yoga with Jaime. Wear your PSP shirts and dress to stretch!
Have a great weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
